DEI efforts are atonement for injustice against minorities

When we have wronged others, common decency demands that we right the wrong. This means that d iversity, equity and inclusion efforts are not simply one more left-right spat in the ongoing culture wars. For many of us in the faith community, they are the attempt to make required atonement for sin. Human efforts to atone for sin, no matter how imperfectly executed, cannot be erased by government fiat.

Our nation has grievously mistreated Native Americans, African Americans, women and other minorities throughout history. To make rightful amends, our institutions began efforts to diversify their staff, ensure equal treatment of all and to be more inclusive of minorities. The effort became known by the acronym DEI.

Vilifying those efforts, President Donald Trump, his advisoes and a number